Sam Cady, American (b. 1943)

Sam Cady’s work encompasses the real and surreal with his amazing ability to render an image in life-like detail with every fiber and shadow playing on the surface, yet the fact that the canvas or board is flat makes it even more of a true illusion or trompe l'oeil (“fool the eye”). Cady’s popular technique of cut-out surfaces is playful and challenging as these inviting surfaces create a space within themselves and the surfaces around them. His subjects, from landscapes to boats and, in this case, an ice fishing shack, are inspired by his childhood roots in Friendship, Maine where he now resides, though he teaches in New York City. The stark realism of his cut-outs makes them seem to jump off the wall and recede into space at the same time, yet they have an abstract and geometric patterning about them as well. “I guess I have that Puritan restraint, that dryness where the surface is not demonstrative, it’s understated and quiet”, says Cady. “All the turmoil and struggle goes on behind the scenes and under the surface. That is really what I’m all about.”

Cady received his B.A. from the University of New Hampshire in 1965 and his M.F.A. from Indiana University in 1967. His work is in the collections of a number of prominent museums, including the Addison Gallery of American Art, the DeCordova Museum, the Farnsworth Art Museum, and the Peabody-Essex Museum.